About St. Leo · Nashville, Kansas
St. Leo Catholic Church (formally St. Leo the Great Parish) is a small Roman Catholic parish serving the unincorporated rural community of St. Leo and the surrounding area of southwestern Kingman County, Kansas. Although its mailing address is Nashville, KS 67112, the parish is rooted in the historic German-Catholic farming enclave of St. Leo, founded in the late 19th century by Frank Weinschenk. It belongs to the Diocese of Wichita and today is pastored as part of a four-parish grouping (with Sacred Heart in Cunningham, St. Peter in Willowdale, and St. John in Zenda) by Rev. Daryl W. Befort. The parish offers weekday Mass on Mondays along with Adoration and Confessions, and remains the spiritual center of a tight-knit rural Catholic community.
- Established
- 1906
- Patron
- St. Leo the Great (Pope Leo I)
- Rector
- Rev. Daryl W. Befort
- Diocese
- Diocese of Wichita
Why belong here
St. Leo is a deeply rooted rural Catholic parish that has served the German-Catholic farming community of southwestern Kingman County for more than a century. Weekly Monday Mass, daily Adoration from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (September–May), and Confessions before Mass give parishioners a quiet, traditional rhythm of worship. The parish is small but devoted, with the entire community pulling together to maintain its church, plan a new community center on the site of the old parochial school, and keep Catholic life alive in a remote agricultural corner of Kansas.
Mass times at St. Leo
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Monday 7:40 AM – 8:00 AM
Adoration times
- Monday 6:00 AM – 7:00 PM (September–May)
About St. Leo Parish
St. Leo the Great Catholic Church is a small Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of Wichita, serving the rural farming community of St. Leo in southwestern Kingman County, Kansas. Although listed with a Nashville, KS mailing address, the church is rooted in the historic German Catholic enclave of St. Leo, founded in the late 1800s by Frank Weinschenk. The parish offers weekday Mass on Mondays, weekday Eucharistic Adoration (September–May), and pre-Mass Confessions, and serves as a quiet, traditional spiritual center for the surrounding agricultural community.
- Parish type: Roman Catholic (Latin Rite)
- Diocese: Wichita
- Mailing address: Nashville, KS 67112
- Physical community: Unincorporated St. Leo, Kingman County
History of the Parish
The community of St. Leo was established in the late 19th century by Frank Weinschenk, a German Catholic landowner, who sold land almost exclusively to fellow German Catholics in order to preserve cultural and religious cohesion. The parish itself traces its formal founding to about 1906, when it received its first recorded pastor. For more than a century, the church has been the social and spiritual anchor of the St. Leo farming settlement, alongside such institutions as the parish's altar societies and, until 1997, St. Leo's Parochial School.
- Community founded by Frank Weinschenk in the late 1800s
- Parish formally organized c. 1906
- St. Leo's Parochial School operated until 1997
- Old school building scheduled for demolition in 2024 to make way for a parish community center
Parish Ministries and Community Life
Like many small rural Catholic parishes, St. Leo's organized lay life is carried forward primarily through its Altar Society, which has long organized much of the parish's social, charitable, and liturgical activity. The wider community of St. Leo continues to center many of its gatherings — festivals, fundraisers, and seasonal events — around the parish.
- Altar Society
Schools and Education
St. Leo's Parochial School operated for generations as part of the parish's faith-and-education mission but closed in 1997 due to declining rural population. As of July 2024, the parish plans to demolish the old school building and replace it with a new community center. Children in the area today attend public schools in USD 332 (Cunningham), with Cunningham High School serving grades 9–12.
- St. Leo's Parochial School: closed 1997
- Old school building: planned for demolition in 2024
- Replacement: new parish community center
Visiting and Contact
St. Leo is located at 8035 SW 160th Avenue in Nashville, KS 67112, on the open prairie of southwestern Kingman County between the small towns of Cunningham (about 8 miles north) and Nashville. The parish phone line is (620) 246-5370, and weekend Mass times are best confirmed by calling, since the parish operates on a rotating weekend schedule.
- Address: 8035 SW 160th Avenue, Nashville, KS 67112
- Phone: (620) 246-5370
- Email listed on parish directories: [email protected]
- Website: catholicdioceseofwichita.org parish listing
Heritage and Cultural Background
St. Leo is one of at least 17 historic German Catholic communities founded in Kansas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its founders came from German-speaking regions of Europe — including Prussia, Luxembourg, and the Volga German colonies of Russia — and deliberately built a religiously unified settlement. Although wartime anti-German sentiment between the World Wars largely ended the use of German in the home, the parish remains the chief institutional heir of that German Catholic heritage, with altar societies and traditional devotions preserving much of the community's religious character.
- One of at least 17 German Catholic settlements in Kansas
- Settlers from Prussia, Luxembourg, and Volga German colonies
- German language in parish life faded between WWI and WWII
- Catholic identity continues as the community's unifying thread
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Daryl W. Befort2024–present
Currently pastors St. Leo along with Sacred Heart (Cunningham), St. Peter (Willowdale), and St. John (Zenda). Born July 29, 1968; ordained May 27, 1995.